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Rehoboth Basters are proud people! Society tends to hang on to the primordial believe that the Rehoboth Basters are, as minority ethnic group, a creation of colonialism. However, a true Rehoboth Baster tends to believe otherwise.
The Basters and their homeland, The Rehoboth Gebiet are maintaining close ties. The Rehoboth Gebiet is the driving force behind their existence. It is an integral part of the Basters’ identity. The origin of the Rehoboth Basters indicates how they – the brown people- are descendants of black and white.
During the late 17th century, Europeans arrived in South Africa from Holland, Germany and The British Isles where they married off Khoisan women (mostly). Those marriages resulted in the Baster generation. The word Baster is actually derived from “bastard”, but it is not derogatory, and the Basters are indeed proud of it.
The Rehoboth Basters originally lived a kind of a nomadic life, but later became more settled, in the part of the Western Cape that was called De Tuin .In the 1860s, they came into conflict with the inhabitants (the whites) and the Korana and San (the blacks) over various of issues. They now were brown children who had to get by without support from their parents. The white fathers would not acknowledge their brown children, and the black mothers shut them out because they tried to follow after their fathers. They were different from their ancestors and were therefore not accepted
This insecurity is given as the reason why 90 Baster families starting a two-year migration in 1868 northward past the Orange River and into the present then South West Africa. Three weeks after they left the Cape colony, they reached Warmbad where a simple constitution was drawn up and Hermanus van Wyk appointed the first kaptein of the Basters. The constitution was later amended to constitute a complex system of laws called "the Paternal Laws or "Die Voorvaderlike Wette"
The migration continued northward and after a couple of years ended in the Rehoboth Gebiet, which made up a small part of a larger area belonging to the Namas, another ethnical group. After negotiations, the leader of the Namas, Abraham Swartbooi, sold Rehoboth Gebiet to the Rehoboth Basters for 100 horses and 5 wagons. After a tiresome journey, they had found an area they could purchase from the traditional, rightful owners and thus making them, the Rehoboth Basters the legal and recognized owners of the territory.
The first ten years in their new land is retold as a period of progress with their own, independent government, their own flag, and their own borders: ‘For the first time the Basters had a peaceful life’
In 1915 a disagreement between the Germans and the Rehoboth Basters resulted in armed conflict, and several of the Basters sought refuge in the mountain of Sam Kubis(approximately 70km south-west of Rehoboth). Despite inferior weapons and fewer people, they managed to hold the Germans at bay – apparently through divine intervention.
On 8 May 1915, the Rehoboth Basters vowed to God to celebrate Sam Kubis every year on that date to express their gratitude for their victory over the Germans. The battle of Sam Kubis means that the Rehoboth Basters have not only paid for the land with horses and wagons, but also with blood.
Despite making an agreement between equal nations, Germany exercised its superiority over the Rehoboth Basters and stole from them what was rightly theirs. At the same time, the battle of Sam Kubis shows that the Rehoboth Basters are not afraid to stand up for what is theirs. God rewarded their courage, and they were able to keep their land despite their weaker position. This year (2005) saw the 90th anniversary of this great day in Baster history.
From 1921, South West Africa, and thereby also Rehoboth Gebiet, was officially placed under South Africa. In Rehoboth, this was perceived as an expanded political opportunity for demands for self-governance, which led to considerable political mobilization. South Africa was, however, did not agree to the demands of the Rehoboth Basters, and despite several rounds of negotiations little was changed.
During the last ten years that Rehoboth Gebiet was under South Africa, important changes took place in the administration of the colony, the Rehoboth Basters received a form of government where their own people were in power in the local government from 1979.
Over the next decade, the popularly elected Kaptein Hans Diergaardt, pursuant to the paternal laws (Voorvaderlike Wette) of the Rehoboth Basters, led the Rehoboth government. This is another milestone in the history of the Rehoboth Basters. Before independence, Rehoboth was the fastest growing town in the whole of Namibia and the reason for that is the fact that Rehoboth was governed by its own people. This is an indication that the Rehoboth Basters are best served by self-governance, said current Baster captain John McNab.
The periods of being a "nation-state" has been the two decades in their history that have been characterized by progress and security. Periods of being subordinate to others, on the other hand, have been characterized by regression and, the theft of the Rehoboth Basters’ historically rightful property,the Rehoboth Gebiet.
Afrikaans-speaking and largely Lutheran Protestant the Rehoboth settlement is now the largest Baster Community in Southern Africa. The people keep livestock and maintain a subsistence-level of farming. Baster migrant labor is mostly found in the building and construction industry in Windhoek and towns throughout the country.
Numbering about fifty thousand, Basters account for 2 percent of the Namibian population. Their generations of intermixing have produced a spirited ethnic community that finally has a distinct identity and home. With evident pride, they affectionately refer to themselves as Rehoboth Basters….
For further information on the Baster Culture consult the following online resources:
European Centre for Minority Issues
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